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joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam
The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.
Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.
Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!
Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.
Click here to report a problem with this page.
Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:
- This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
- The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "yahoo/msn lottery inc" (no such lottery exists)
- "yahoo/msn lottery" (no such lottery exists)
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "greater london" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "00,000.00" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "mr_robertkiefer@live.co.uk" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- This email message is a fake lottery scam. Consider the following facts about real lotteries:
- They don't notify winners by email.
- You can't win without first buying a lottery ticket.
- They don't randomly select email addresses to award prizes to.
- They don't use free email accounts (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) to communicate with you.
- They don't tell you to call a mobile phone number.
- They don't tell you to keep your winnings secret.
- They will never ask a winner to pay any fees to receive a prize!
Fraud email example:
From: "YAHOO/MSN LOTTERY 2011" <info@lotto.co.uk>
Reply-To: mr_robertkiefer@live.co.uk
Date: Sat, 02 Apr 2011 14:19:38 -0600
Subject:
--
Yahoo/MsnLottery
Incorporation
Baley House, Har Road
Sutton, Greater London
SM1 4te
United Kingdom
Dear lucky winner,
We are please to inform you that you just won the sum of (£500,000.00)
FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND GREAT BRITAIN POUNDS STERLINGS for the month of
MARCH 2011 Lottery promotion which is organized by YAHOO/MSN LOTTERY
INC & WINDOWS LIVE.
Batch number.......YM 09102XM
Reff number........YM35447XM
Winning number.....YM ym09788
You are therefore advised to send the following information to the EVENTS
AGENT to facilitate them and process the COURIER of your money.
(CONTACT EVENTS AGENT MANAGER)
Mr. Robert Kieffer
Head Winning Claims Dept
Official Email: mr_robertkiefer@live.co.uk
Provide the information below;
1.NAMES:....
2.ADDRESS:....
3.SEX/AGE:....
4.COUNTRY:....
5.OCCUPATION:....
6.TELEPHONE:......
Congratulations!! once again.
Yours in service,
Dr Samuel Bent
(Lottery Co-ordinator)
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